earth hour

melbourne..well more specifically the great ocean road was amazing and as soon as my computer is fixed i will do a detailed post with TONS of pictures

i just want to write a quick post on what happened tonight.  Starting at 8:30 tonight for an hour everyone in Australia as well as around the world was supposed to turn off their lights.  Its called earth hour and has been advertised all around australia.  I turned off all the lights in my apartment and watched in amazement as most of the city went dark. 

it was a beautiful thing.

The weather here is so bizarre. Yesterday I went to the beach and laid out all day and then when i got home it started pouring rain.

I am going to Melbourne this weekend and I am really excited about it. Ashley knows someone there that owns his own restaurant/bar/club and we might rent a van and do the great ocean road which is supposed to be absolutely beautiful. All the beaches here are straight out of magazines. The sand is sooo soft but it gets EVERYWHERE!

More observations:
-Everything closes SO early here, especially on Sunday. Yesterday everything in the SIX STORY mall across the street was closed by SIX!
-They are very energy/water efficient here. All the toilets have two options for flushing (a half and a full flush) and all the outlets have switches on them so you can have stuff plugged in but it wont work unless you turn on the switch. Also in some of the hotel rooms we've been in you have to put your key into this box to turn on the power. so in order to leave you have to take out the key thus turning off all the lights
-this sounds weird but the money here is so pretty. It's all different colors and has this see through part and is made out of plastic so you can get it wet and it wont tear. The only annoying thing is they have one and two dollar coins so you ALWAYS have a ton of change with you.

-In all of the places where they sell cigarettes they have HUGE signs that say SMOKING KILLS but yet more people smoke here than they do back home.

More Aussie Observations

Nothing too exciting has happened to me lately so I'd figure I'd list more fun observations about life out here for all of my American loves.

The Aussies love to add y to the end of everything. We were giving our friends dean and jacob shit for it the other day saying they make all of their words cute. For example: breaky (breakfast), prezzie (present), boardy (board shorts) etc

All of the kids in elementary and high school here have to wear uniforms regardless of whether they go to private or public school. And they are legit uni's too like ties and blazers and everything.

There are a lot of hot young dads here. Which i guess is weird to say but we've all noticed.

Their eggs freak me out. At the market they aren't refrigerated. They are seriously on the shelf right next to the paper towels. And their bacon is like not cooked at all. Its almost like canadian bacon. I dont even know how to explain it.

Every night is a weekend night. There are certain clubs that are HUGE on one night of the week but not the others and when you get there you feel like its Friday even if its just Tuesday. And they ALL play the SAME 6 songs:September - Cry for you (you'll never see me again), Guru Josh Project - Infinity, Freddie La Mac - Put your hands up for detroit. it's changing my taste in music.

They serve fries (or chips) with EVERYTHING. You can even get salad and chips if you wish hahah.

They arent big on fountain drinks so if you order a coke with your meal you get it in a can or bottle.

Even though this is an english speaking country there is so much slang and they pronounce so many words differently that you almost need a translation book half the time. Ex filit is pronounced fill-it

I think Americans are more obsessed with summer heights high than Aussie's even though its an australian show.

They have many american tv shows here but they are months or even seasons behind. They are only on season 1 of the hills!

College (or rather UNI) is A LOT different here. Back home its almost a lifestyle. Here they just go to class and thats it. They don't really even have dorms or anything.



more to come!

Yesterday was gay mardi gras. It was unlike anything I've ever experienced before. Casey and Ryan came down from Canberra and we had around 10 other boys who were friends with my roommates here as well. So it was a little crowded to say the least but definetly fun.

Everyone got all decked out in masks and feathers and glitter...even the boys! We then headed down to watch the parade. There was over 10,000 people there from so many different countries. It was nice to see that everyone came together or this even though it was a gay and lesbian parade.

So far life here in Sydney has been great. Right now its raining which sucks. The weather here is so unpredictable. Yesterday it was all sunny and nice and today it's pouring. Im definetly not used to it.

Ash and I are planning to possible go to either Tasmania this weekend or camping in Melbourne. I can't wait!